Churchless parishioners are desperately looking for funds to help repair their tired parish hall.

Fire ripped through St Michael's and All Angels Church in March, causing more than £2m damage.

Since then parishioners have been forced to celebrate mass at their near-by Parish Hall in Newburn, Newcastle, which, according to St Michael's vicar, the Reverend John Sinclair, is not in a good state of repair.

Mr Sinclair said: "The hall has always been around but, before I came, it was rented to a gym for 17 years and the place had almost gone to disrepair.

"Since the fire we have been forced to use the hall for Sunday services and there is only one radiator for the whole place and it is quite big."

On March 21 more than 60 firefighters battled through the night to save the church building after its bell tower went up in flames.

The blaze destroyed six bells which crashed down the badly-damaged belfry, wrecked half the church's roof and damaged many of the stained glass windows.

The Church site dates back to 600 AD and is said to have been the site of a Scottish invasion in 1640. The bell tower, which has been most damaged by the flames, is thought to date back to Saxon and Norman times.

Work to revamp the church, had been completed just hours before the blaze.

Mr Sinclair said: "I remember when I got to the church that night it was just a huge building of flames and I was shocked by the size of them.

"The next morning, when the fire had finally been put out, you could see how badly damaged the church was. Since then the insurance company has been here and told us it's going to take until Christmas next year to repair and will cost about £2m."

Mr Sinclair says before he started to use the Parish Hall on a weekly basis he discovered rot throughout the building as well as a lack of working toilets.

He said: "We have to bring the building up to proper standards, which includes a disabled access toilet, heating, new windows and doors - pretty much everything you can think of.

"We were doing it a little at a time before but now we have to get it all done.

"The church isn't going to be ready for another year and we need somewhere to meet.

"We're hoping people can help us because we can't afford it on our own."

Anyone who would like to donate money to the parish hall should send a cheque payable to the Newburn Hall Management Committee, The Vicarage, High Street, Newburn.